The result of the first inning for Arkansas on Saturday in the rubber match against Kentucky? Carnage.
The Razorbacks posted a 10-spot in the game's opening frame, recorded eight hits and brought 16 batters to the plate before Kentucky recorded the third out. Kentucky right-hander Connor Mattison, making the start since the Wildcats used Jaxon Jelkin to close out Thursday's 4-3 win, did not record an out and was charged with five earned runs. Kentucky needed three pitchers to get through the inning. Combined, they walked three batters, hit two more and had a wild pitch that scored a run, not to mention a throwing error by third baseman Caeden Cloud earlier in the inning.
It looked like it would be a long afternoon at Kentucky Proud Park.
But the Wildcats, which trailed 11-0 after the top of the second and 12-2 after the top of the third, answered with a ridiculous inning of their own in the fifth.
Kentucky scored nine runs to tie the game as nine straight batters reached base in the inning. Tyler Bell started the string of consecutive baserunners with a one-out triple to right field. Luke Lawrence singled to score Bell. Hudson Brown followed that up with a single to the right side, then Will Marcy drew a walk to load the bases. Carson Hansen, a former Arkansas commit out of the transfer portal and in the lineup on Saturday for the injured Braxton Van Cleave, launched an opposite-field grand slam to make it 12-9.
The bottom of the order kept on producing. Freshman catcher Owen Jenkins singled and third baseman Caeden Cloud hit a ground-rule double to put two runners in scoring position. Center fielder Jayce Tharnish hit a sinking liner into right-center field that Christian Turner couldn't come up with. Jenkins scored on the hit and Cloud came around to score on a throwing error as the ball got away on the throw back into the infield. Bell struck out to make it two outs, but Lawrence found a hole on the left side to tie it at 12-12.
"For 10 years, you've never seen one of our teams stop fighting," head coach Nick Mingione said. "That's part of our DNA. That's what we do. Obviously, that's not good when you go down 11. Ten run first and then gave up another to be down 11, but give our guys credit."
Arkansas answered with two runs in the sixth inning and then tacked on a couple of insurance runs in the ninth inning on solo homers from Zack Stewart and Nolan Souza. Stewart went 4-6 with four RBIs in the game and recorded a homer in all three games of the series.
Arkansas took the rubber match 16-12 to continue a brutal season-long trend for this Kentucky team. The Wildcats went 0-7 in SEC series-deciding games and 2-8 in SEC finales. Opponents scored 102 runs in getaway games in league play, an average of over 10 runs per game.
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To add insult to injury, Kentucky put up good offensive performances in several of the series finale losses. The Wildcats plated 12 runs in Saturday's loss and out-hit Arkansas 17-14, but also had a double-digit run effort in a loss to LSU, and scored nine runs in losses against Ole Miss and Tennessee.
"It's frustrating, but you're a team," Mingione said. "You've got to click on all facets. We had some non-plays on the field today that we needed to make by the same guys offensively that did something great. You've got to be able to pitch, you've got to be able to defend and you've got to be able to run offense. We didn't do enough of those today."
Kentucky used nine pitchers in the defeat. With a big deficit, the coaching staff turned to a few pitchers who had rarely been used in SEC play. Freshman left-hander Will Coleman made his SEC debut and allowed an earned run in his lone inning, and sophomore right-hander Bryson Treichel made just his third appearance of the season. Senior Jack Bennett worked four innings out of the pen and held Arkansas to no earned runs in his first three innings, but the Hogs finally got to him in the ninth with a pair of solo homers.
The Wildcats finished the regular season 31-20 overall. They went 13-17 in the SEC for a second straight season and will have a few days off before opening the SEC Tournament against Vanderbilt on Tuesday. The Commodores won the series in Lexington two games to one.
"We've gotta clean some things up defensively," Mingione said. "We've gotta get some guys in the strike zone better with more than just zero or one pitches. We've gotta be able to land a couple of off-speed pitches for strikes. We have to continue to get our guys some rest and get them strong and ready to rock and roll."
As of publication, Kentucky is No. 35 in the RPI. Arkansas moved to No. 25, making UK 7-8 in RPI Quad-1 games and 4-4 in Quad-2 games.
